


Unbound Light

by Serriya (Keolah)



Series: Unbound World [3]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons - Fandom, World of Darkness (Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-21
Updated: 2007-03-21
Packaged: 2017-12-06 18:59:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Guild of the Unbound seek to eliminate unwanted genes, violently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unbound Light

Rishne heard a car pull up outside and went over to take a peek out the window. She hadn't been expecting anyone, but no, they'd pulled up outside across the street instead. It was a white van marked with the broken chain of the Unbound. Four men wearing white uniforms came out of the van and approached her neighbors' house.

"What is it, Rish?" asked her husband, Arkervi, across the room, glancing up from his newspaper.

"Purifiers," Rishne replied with a touch of dread in her tone. "Across the street at the Terra house."

Arkervi just frowned and went back to reading the paper, but Rishne stepped out onto the front porch to listen and see why they might be there. Their neighbor, Ivandin Terra, had opened the door and was speaking with the Purifiers. It was not difficult to overhear them, however, as that conversation quickly degenerated into shouting.

"This can't be!" Ivandin insisted. "I am Unbound! I have no magical restrictions or limitations."

"That may be so," said one of the men, whose more elaborate uniform marked him as a Purity Officer. "However, your nephew was discovered to require hand gestures in order to perform magic."

"But my family is pure! The defect must have come from the other side. Why don't you check his mother's family instead?"

"Oh, believe me, we will," the Purity Officer said unpleasantly. "However, in order for a magical limitation to manifest itself visibly, it must have come from both sides. You know the law, Ivandin Terra. All family members out to two generations must be purged."

"No!" Ivandin shouted, a look of panic crossing his face. He was desparate, and desparate men often did desparate things. Even as the Purifiers attempted to restrain him in shimmering chains, he began channeling power. Unlike his ill-fated nephew, he did not require being able to move in order to do his magic.

A magical battle unfolded in the streets, and a number of other bystanders came out to watch horrified from a safe distance as well. A torrent of molten lava showered down upon the Purifiers, but the attack merely rolled off their gleaming magical shields, and they were unharmed. Ivandin was hopelessly outnumbered and overpowered. The battle was fierce, but quick, and Ivandin was shortly knocked unconscious and shoved into the back of the van.

Once Ivandin was secured, the Purifiers headed into the house. Several minutes later, they came out with a very confused three-year-old girl. Rishne grimaced and turned away, unable to watch anymore. Feeling a little sick to her stomach, she headed back into her home.

"What was that commotion out there?" asked Arkervi, still behind his newspaper.

"They got Ivandin," Rishne said distantly. "And his little girl..."

"That's too bad," Arkervi said. "He was a pleasant chap. I'll miss him at bowling night."

Rishne sighed, still more than a little disturbed by the incident. "Ark, do you ever wonder if it's too much? If the Guild is going too far? What if one of the kids turned out to have some sort of magical limitation?"

"I wouldn't think that'd be too likely," Arkervi said, not looking up. "The Lupus family always had some interesting traits, but not the sorts of things the Purifiers are looking for. Don't worry about it too much, Rish."

"I try," Rishne said quietly. "But sometimes I can't help myself."

* * *

Rishne was driving home from the store one afternoon when she passed a half-destroyed house. She thought that was strange, as she hadn't recalled seeing any damage when she'd passed it on the way into town. She saw some figures moving around in the wreckage, so she pulled over to the side of the road and parked her car, and climbed out to approach them.

"What-- What happened here?" Rishne asked. "Was it a magical accident or something?" The place looked as though it had been blown apart, most of the roof torn from the walls and laying in pieces in the yard. It was a large house, as well, looking as though it must have been quite nice before it had been destroyed.

A young man approached her. No, a boy. He couldn't have been more than sixteen. He shook his head and said, "No, it was no accident. It was the Purifiers."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Rishne replied. "Someone put up a fight? Are you alright?" She figured that the boy must not have been too closely related to their target if they had left him alive.

"Yeah, I'm okay," the boy said, staring off distractedly at the ruins of his house. "Name's Barokan Nox, by the way. I don't even know why they came after us. They said they were purging weakness."

"I'm Rishne Lupus. Someone in your family had innate limitations on how their magic might be used?" Rishne asked.

"None whatsoever. I don't get it. The only thing I could think they'd decided to go after was their vulnerability to sunlight. We're vampires! And they used that against us, ripping the roof right off so the sun could come straight in and fry nearly everyone inside into ash."

Rishne frowned deeply. "That's strange. They've never gone against those sorts of weaknesses before. Just restrictions on magic use. Have they started running low on victims so they've expanded their target list? What about you?"

"Sunlight never affected me, thankfully, nor my father," Barokan said. "He's out at work right now. He's going to flip when he gets back. My grandparents always ridiculed my mother for choosing someone to marry whose blood had become so diluted, they said. Maybe it's a little ironic that that's what saved me, and they're now dead..." He sighed.

"That's terrible," Rishne said. "Did anyone else survive other than you and your father?"

"Just the servants, I'm afraid," Barokan said, gesturing toward the others going through the wreckage and pulling out anything they could salvage. "I-- I still can't believe this happened. My grandparents had been longtime supporters of the Guild of the Unbound! Why would they do such a thing?"

"Shh, I know it's hard, but try to calm down." Rishne put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. It felt a little strange to be reassuring a vampire. "You can come over to my house and call your father to tell him what happened, if you want. I live just down the street."

"Alright," Barokan nodded distantly as he turned toward where she had parked her car. They climbed inside, and Rishne drove them the two blocks to her own home in silence.

Once she'd parked in the driveway, she climbed out again and turned to head inside, almost forgetting about the groceries. "The phone's just to the left, you can't miss it," she said as she went back to the trunk.

"Thanks." Barokan headed inside. While he did that, Rishne went to put the groceries away, but she was haunted by thoughts and worries of her own. Once she finished that, she headed into the living room, where Barokan had just gotten off the phone.

"If the Purifiers are starting to go after those with magical vulnerabilities now and not just restrictions, that would mean my own family is at risk. I'm not silver-sensitive, but my husband and both of my children are. They normally at least go after immediate family members as well. I wonder why they left you alone?"

"I don't know," Barokan replied. "When I realized what they were doing, I slipped out the back and hid in the garden shed. I thought they would find me for sure. But they left without coming after me. I think the others had managed to put up a good fight anyway, in spite of it being in the middle of the day. Two of the Purifiers had been killed as well. Maybe they just went back for reinforcements and didn't want to risk going after anyone else yet."

"Is your father on the way?" Rishne asked. Barokan nodded. "My kids should be getting home from school soon. They're six and eight... I don't want anything to happen to them. I'd hate to think someone would barge into their classroom with guns loaded with silver bullets, or something. Dear Goddesses, this is terrible."

Another car pulled up shortly and parked outside, and a man in a suit came out and approached the door. "That's my dad," Barokan said.

Rishne ushered the man inside and closed the door behind him nervously. "Roke, are you alright?" asked Barokan's father, hugging the boy protectively.

"Yeah, dad, I'm fine. We've gotta get away from here," Barokan said. "We have to get out of here."

"I agree, and my family as well," Rishne added. "But where could we go? The Guild of the Unbound controls just about the entire world!"

"There has to be someplace we can go!" Barokan insisted.

"I don't know," Mr. Nox said with a sigh. "I don't like to just run away. Someone has to stay and put up a stand against this."

"Stay? Fight? How can we fight the Guild of the Unbound?" Roke said.

"You can stay and commit suicide trying to fight them if you want," Rishne said. "But I want my children to be safe."

"Perhaps not fight them directly, but we may not be entirely without allies," Mr. Nox went on. He may have seemed a little flustered after the loss of his wife, but that wasn't stopping him from thinking coolly and rationally. "We have families, cousins, distant relatives we can go to for help. They won't be happy about this turn of events anymore than we are."

Rishne thought about that for a moment. "I can talk to the other shapeshifters as well if it'll help."

"Why would the werewolves care if a few vampires had been killed?" Mr. Nox said.

"They might come after us as well," Rishne said.

"You can't be sure of that yet. They might not consider sensitivity to silver nearly as debilitating a condition as sunlight. You might end up unnecessarily putting yourself in harm's way for our sake."

Rishne shook her head. "No. I can't take that risk depending on flimsy maybes and what-ifs. I've stood by all my life watching the Purifiers hunt down my friends and neighbors, never daring to speak up against it, to speak up for them. If I stay quiet now, and continue to hope that we aren't next, who will speak up for me when they finally decide to come for me?"

Mr. Nox gave a terse nod. "I understand, and I can respect that. I don't want you to feel like you have to help us, but it's your choice."

"I never thought the Purifiers would come after us..." Roke said dejectedly. "This all just seems so hopeless."

"Don't let yourself be defeated before the battle has really begun, Roke," Mr. Nox said quietly. "Where there's life, there's hope. The Guild has gone too far this time, and we must show them that they have crossed the line. This is where it stops."


End file.
